Mr. Bill must go
Whatever confidence Bush retained in Rumsfeld, the Cabinet officer’s support in Congress had eroded significantly. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker-in-waiting, said at her first post-election news conference that Bush should replace the top civilian leadership at the Pentagon.
And Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who had intervened in the past to shore up Rumsfeld, issued a statement saying, “Washington must now work together in a bipartisan way — Republicans and Democrats — to outline the path to success in Iraq.
Translation: Frist is on life support and doesn’t want anyone pulling the plug.
Washington could have worked together in a bipartisan way yesterday, Mr. Bill. It was your call then. But we saw how nicey-nice the other Tennessee Senator was to Harold Ford, Jr. Play the race card one day and the backslap the next.
Certainly, the rhetoric of polarity needs to be de-nuclearized. But the first best way to achieve that is to neuter the power of the brokers who trafficked in the uranium.
Step down from your leadership slot, Mr. Bill. If your party doesn’t have the sense to purge your toxic sludge to demonstrate a willingness to achieve compromise, a truce is not the smart and effective and effective way forward.
Call it whatever, but the reality is no one’s come forward to apologize or acknowledge responsibility for the poisonous environment that persisted while America’s real needs were neglected. As a doctor, you certainly know the value of a good purgative.
Prove your good faith. Resign from your party leadership. Send us an ambassador who hasn’t been carrying a shiv. Somebody like Senator Snowe or Senator Hagel. Somebody who knows the real traits of leadership that you so obviously lack.
Rummy’s not the token sacrifice that bears the weight of responsibility for all the misdeeds that have occurred. Voters also said they’re sick of the corruption. And you led one of the Houses that was corrupted.
Goodbye, Mr. Bill. You blew your wad. Now have the good sense to get out of the way of anyone in your party with some integrity left.
